I love Harvest Moon (and Rune Factory, and Story of Seasons, and...) but I just couldn't get into this for some reason. Maybe I'm used to them being handheld games, or just that this feels like a step backwards compared to RF4 or SoS.

It kind of is a step back from RF4, but I am still enjoying it for what it is.

Plus he's said that he will add more content over time. He's also acknowledged that there isn't much "game" after a player hits the 2-3 year mark, you've probably accomplished pretty much everything that there is to do at that point.

Ginaz, if you're looking for a farm simulator to try, I think maybe Rune Factory 4 would be better. It has a lot more to do, particularly on the monster slaying side. Unfortunately, it is on 3DS.

Which is the main point really... if you want that style of game-play on PC this game has the market to itself. Which also gives him a nice foundation of funds and players to extend from, especially since he's not bound by retail release restrictions.

I've bought it, I've always been curious what the draw of these sort of games is and it's cheap enough to experiment with... though when it will float to the top of my steam backlog is a good question. But then I guess it will probably keep improving for some time, the guy seems pretty motivated.

Which is the main point really... if you want that style of game-play on PC this game has the market to itself.

Dunno about that, there's a fair number of these on Steam that never took off, like Our Love Will Grow, Wild Season, World's Dawn, and no shortage of farming games without the relationship stuff (from Farming Simulator to the ocean of Farmville knockoffs). There's a small flood of them in development / submission on Greenlight, too. Stardew is just the first one that's really sold well.

Do you get to craft a mill at some point? Seems weird that I'm perpetually dependent on Tom Nook (or whatever his name is) for wheat flour etc.

Would also be nice to be able to grow rice but that would take some ability to alter land forms to create water infiltration. Not really the climate for it.

Nope, you'll always have to buy your wheat flour and other such ingredients (such as sugar). Not a huge issue as you will easily be able to afford to buy thousands from him in single shots, if so inclined, later on due to a lack of late-game cash sinks.

From what I skimmed over on the game's forums, Abigail is the most popular, followed by Leah, then Penny and Haley. Maru, apparently, is incredibly unpopular.

Abigail is a gamer and a goth. She has blue hair, likes to hang out at cemeteries and she's an existentialist. She's weird and socially awkward and she hates being around people. No wonder she's a favorite with people who live on the internet. She's the ideal projection screen for all nerd hopes and dreams.

Dunno about that, there's a fair number of these on Steam that never took off, like Our Love Will Grow, Wild Season, World's Dawn, and no shortage of farming games without the relationship stuff (from Farming Simulator to the ocean of Farmville knockoffs). There's a small flood of them in development / submission on Greenlight, too. Stardew is just the first one that's really sold well.

I was more thinking in terms of the big names being completely off the platform... but I probably should have guessed there'd be other indie attempts at doing something similar. The "World's dawn" game actually looks pretty good and has positive reviews, but I'd never heard of it.

Ok, I've gotta post here as I know some of you have beaten this game. So on my 99th (not even but many starts) I went all in on parsnips. I'm on my first day of summer and I went for 40 blueberries. I think I can do that again tomorrow or near. As it turns out 40 was about as much energy as I want to spend. Does this sound right to you? How would you advise me?

I got to say something here. This is"nt my kinda game. I buy a lotta games most of which aren't the kinda games that really interest me. So I bought it and I pussed, and I pussed some more. For such a simple game its deep and complex. I can't play Darkest dungeon for long as I'll cramp up, I gotta take it in increments. But this game is relaxing. It's actually fun to play. This is news to me.

Ok, I've gotta post here as I know some of you have beaten this game. So on my 99th (not even but many starts) I went all in on parsnips. I'm on my first day of summer and I went for 40 blueberries. I think I can do that again tomorrow or near. As it turns out 40 was about as much energy as I want to spend. Does this sound right to you? How would you advise me?

Sounds like you haven't truly let go of the Joja Mart life. Take a day off and go fishing.

Well bro's do let bro's pus. I mean just dick around a bit. So I did and I thought I figured something out. So I restarted and went all in on parsnips. Then summer and I went 40 blueberries and another 40 the next day. It takes over half my energy to harvest and water the plants. I can only clear the farm on rainy days I have so little energy. Is money an object? Well I have way more then ever but I haven"t upgraded my house yet let alone buy a silo or coop or barn. It's a breakthrough to say this game drains stress as I play while all other games build stress. Why did no one think of this before?

ya, there's a million things to say here . But your right. That save is still there but I've restarted. And there's no telling how many times I do this. How can you craft a game that is so simple but so complex? And I say that ignoring fishing. And I haven't been to the mines yet. And.. And And.

So, this didn't click with me before but I decided to give it another shot and now I'm liking it. I did grab some mods for it, though; none of them make the game "easier" they just give you more information. NPC Map LocationsBetter MilkingAnimal Mood FixLookup AnythingShow Item Sell PriceSkip Intro

I enjoyed it but I really have almost never hit as hard a stop point as I did with this game--where I just mentally tallied up the things left to do, which weren't that many but a few, and said, "All done, no more ever". Got my money's worth, for sure, but I didn't even have a vague moment the next day of wanting to play more.

I'm at the stage where I have more money than I literally know what to do with. I'm currently taking 3 villagers at a time on a trip to friendly town by showering them with gifts while also making my farm look lovely.

As with most of these games (Subnautica was the same) I really do wish there was more 'there' to them.

This is not a reasonable expectation for *this* game, but someday I still feel someone's going to get autonomous-agent AI with some form of an emergent narrative-generator right in a game of this kind, so people's stories keep evolving and new people keep showing up. So maybe the game starts with everyone having a hand-written "story seed" but then you get to your third season and new stuff starts to happen that goes beyond the NPCs in Animal Crossing reacting to the changes you bring (or the time you've been away).

Even just having something like Animal Crossing, where there are hundreds of villagers and you get a random handful +/- a few each year would go a long way. And yet none of the games in the genre have ever gone that way. HM, SoS, RF, and SdV all have the same handful of fixed villagers and that's that.

I'm in Fall of Year 2, and just finished building the final upgrades to the barn and coop. House has been expanded only once. Have the greenhouse. I have no sheep yet and only one rabbit. Most of the townspeople are either at 1 heart or zero - a couple are at 3. Fishing level is at 3, and haven't yet maxed out skills except farming, I think.

I don't know how people manage to have a million gold the first year. I suppose my next play through would be more efficient, but I spend a lot of time just puttering. My tools are gold level. I have only 2 or 3 iridium bars. I don't have the lava sword yet, even. Haven't min/maxed. I just grow everything but my farm is still pretty small - only about 16 squares wide and not even all the way to the bottom of the homestead.

I guess Chucklefish is working on multiplayer, so whether more content will be added, who knows. Seems like a winning franchise though, so I'll be surprised if there isn't at least a new similar game, even if this one is finished.

I thoroughly enjoyed this game (was probably the game I put the most hours into last year that wasn't a Paradox game) and yeah, it has some real flaws in terms of the end-game/longevity. I gave it a pass, personally, on those issues due to being made by one guy and the rest of the game being fairly enjoyable.

I still go back to it occassionally, as well. It is fairly easy to min/max after you get the basics down and figure out how to be very efficient, especially in the early game to get the snowball rolling. Getting a million gold isn't that hard (I think I got around 1.1 million my first year on my last playthrough and I wasn't completely min/maxxing as much as I could have in terms of crops -- I limited plot size and grow a minimum of each crop type instead of sticking to the best gold per season crops). Big key is just getting enough gold early on to upgrade some tools to make things far more efficient and allow you to access sprinklers earlier. Fishing is the main way I get extra gold early on, as I find it easy (boring, but easy) and you can fit it in after taking care of your crops.

I do wish there were more villagers and better late-game content. After the first year everything is almost exactly the same, and by the end of the second year the only thing I usually haven't gotten on my farm is the $1 million+ buildings.. and that's usually because I start to get lazy atg that point, as my farm is all laid out will full iridium sprinklers and a couple sheds full of casks for wine making with a small area for the barn and coop and associated grazing.